A six-run 4th inning dooms Dragons

With rainouts and rescheduled games putting a strain on the season, William Monroe’s baseball team is now beginning to get into their district schedule.
Coming off a win against Charlottesville, the Dragons went into Orange on Tuesday, April 7, looking to repeat a district game win.
But the Hornets had other ideas.  The Dragons fell to Orange by a final score of 7-2.
The Monroe team threatened first in the game in the first inning. Bruce Shifflett hit a double-in-the-gap to be in scoring position with one out.
Then Orange threatened to score in the inning as back-to-back walks had runners on first and second. But with one out, Shifflett was able to pitch his way out of danger by getting a ground ball and big strike out to end any chance of the Hornets scoring.
Orange got on the board first in the second inning, with an error turning into a run on an RBI single. The Hornets were able to get the bases loaded with no outs - but, once again, Shifflett got a pop up and two strikeouts to keep the Orange lead at 1-0.
After a quick third inning, the wheels appeared to fall off for the Dragons. After three hits, two wild pitches, one fielding error, and three walks, the Hornets had jumped out to a big lead at 7-0.
Jeremy Breeden was brought into pitch during the fourth inning to slow down the Orange bats. He stopped the bleeding by getting the last two outs of the inning, keeping the deficit at seven.
When asked about the inning, Dragons coach Mark Arrington said, “Bruce pitched well but we made way too many mistakes around him. They really had very few hard hit balls, but the easy plays seemed to be the hardest to make.“
Daniel Thacker was brought in to pitch in the fifth inning and held the Hornets throughout the rest of the game. Thacker pitched well, giving up only one hit in two innings of work.
Monroe wasn’t going down without a fight. Just as they did against Charlottesville, the Dragons began to mount a comeback in the top of the seventh inning.
With one out in the inning, Henry Morris reached on an error followed by a walk drawn by Logan Forloines that got the Dragons going. After a wild pitch moved the runners up a base, Colby Fitzgerald then grounded out, scoring Morris from third.
Shifflett then walked to put yet another runner on with two outs. Danny Morris got the Dragons second RBI of the game as he singled to bring home Forloines.
But that was as much as Monroe could get. Eric Utz then grounded out to end the threat and the game. The Dragons fell to Orange by a final score of 7-2.
Assessing the loss, Arrington put it simply: “They played better than we did. They made the plays they had to in order to get the win.“
Monroe struggled at the plate, coming up with just four hits. Shifflett, Jason Nave, Danny Morris, and Forloines each had a hit. Morris and Fitzgerald had the only RBI’s for the Dragons.
Monroe fell to 5-3 overall and 1-1 in the Jefferson District.